History of the Colby Family with Genealogical Tables
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
THQ C OLBY F I JMLY M STORY . TH /REE TI T' fRE S C U . ' EA DER a - , we see a bo t s crew of big , blonde barbarians on — - l o n a shore , fur clad , with g hair wildly tangled . As t h ey ’ l ade the boat they laugh s T h e u proariou ly . place is a a n cove in a D nish isla d . The d at e a s a b e y ack to the era of the Jewish proph ts , before the time o f Christ . They a r e talki n g about certain desirable herds of cattle mm: o f their n umber have seen on the British w h o coast ; and anon about the puny people own them . They a re telling what sport it will be w hen they land there and take possession ; and how (l ro ll it w ill be to s r s a n d o w n fo r u pri e capture the ners also , keepi g them s a e a n s l v s d wive . An d n o w they embark from this harbor of C o ldby or C o e — — l by , the cold town or the hil l town , and , joining w t ma o f t i h ny ther boats rom the Dan ish shore , s art on on e o f those immens e marauding e xpeditions so common i n e ar t m s ly i e . What w ere th e names of these men ? N o one knows . t f l if n m e an t he I t is doub u they had any ames , or th a e a wolves in pack would have . Very l ikely ch bore a o f 11 1 8 w a c h an e m nickname, the gift neighbors ith g frc time to time . But like all savages , they had a c opious vocabulary o f ~ n m f pl ac e a e s and a ondness for them . I t is a thousand miles th ey are goi n g ; but they will t n . skir alo g the shores , and help t hemselves to supplies EXT w e see our Danish fisherme n awkwardly t ry o f r ing to milk their new cows . Some the B iton women are giving them instruction . It is a fi ne grazing country the men have come to ; and they seem greatly pleased with their n e w quarters . i s Their jollity rough and boisterous , as they slap each f r o . other on the back , or clinch a tumble The conversation is quite upon the adva n t ages of f o f s ? owning cattle , the happy li e one who is both a fi her man and a herdsman . They se e m pleased to settle into b w f th is qu iet life , and a andon their desultory ar ares . Here are the houses left by the native Britons their former occupants are mostly slain or fl ed into the wilder i ness . But the swarm o burly Da n es seems altogether countless along the British coast . Y e t Den mark has not b een left vacant ; and this emigration will never be n o ticed . - e ve r ‘ s ot i s s Ignoring the B ritish place names , y p oon re - - christe ned with some fondly remembered home name , and the whole kingdom of East Anglia be comes a N ew “ BY f Denmark . KOLD is not orgotten . and a village receives the pleasant title yes , three or four villages . More than a thousand years now pass away , but the same familiar name clings to the place . A thousand wars e r hav changed its occupants a hund ed times , and its lan guage as many . Not one old family who may have once lived , has escaped being cast out and lost sight of over and over again in the steady swirl o f contending streams a nd currents o f freebooting races . ND NOW we see three knights on noble palfreys mounted . Beside them stands a clerk resting his ponderou s book upon his saddle . I nto the inkhorn at his n belt he dips a fe at h e rn pe . “ ha t l a . W t name bearest | he asks the eldest knight The question is in French. “ s I am Robert o f County Norfolk . He also speak in French . ’ P \ n d thou f Warine de No r olk . d n n . And this you g man , thi e other brother is calle Simon 9" “ Thus was he named . t he w h o Then , in name of good King j ack , primarily I owns all purparty in A n glia , now endow you brethren three jointly w ith hal f this village o f Colby to hold in his name so long as in fealty you wield your swords for him . when he hath need . These yeomen are your villains People , salute your masters f . Long li e to Robert , master of Colby l they cry And at this moment the men of single name become men of a new double name ; henceforward the local des ign at io n will be their family name forever down the years CO LBY . T H E O L B Y O F EN G L A N D C S . ( C OL Q Y TH E PL ACE . H US Colby was the name of a place long b e fore i t was the name o f a man ; and there is no doubt that it was the name o f the place in Denmark long before it was the name of the vi] lages in England . o f The eastern peninsula England , designated in part f at present as the Counties Norfolk and Suf olk , is fringed - with meadow land . Before the art of farming had pro gre s s e d so far as to raise grass from seed on high grou nd the meadows were the valuable part of a cou ntry . Hence this district has been fought for by every clan and tribe i n e x and nation near , till its intermixture of peoples is an - plicable race problem . The Norfolk shore without doubt was first overrun by the Danes before even j ulius C aesar conquered England , as well as occasionally afterward . Many of the eastern to w ns have Danish names . There 2 6 af are 5 villages , near this coast , named ter Scandinavian “ — ones and in all England 43 2 en ding in by ; 1 7 here in Norfolk . - All these are town names in Denmark or Sweden , and all l i olh v . b are descripti e terms , with a meaning n is Danish fo r f Cold Town , with an uncom ortable meaning , or Cool f Town , denoting com ort , according to the season ; but in both cases describing an island - town with a northeast erly exposure in the North Sea . 8 l The Norfolk English are chief y descendants o f the old - o f f Danish sea kings ; the type their eatures is Danish , - and their speech is interspersed with semi Danish words . There is an alertness about this Norse blood , wherever it f n o o f lows , which is readily ticed , and by very many the f Colby amily it is exemplified . Let us trace our name back toDenmark . Far around the eastern shore o f the Danish peninsula are several islands , great and small . One is called Sam f a n d so. It is fifteen miles long , very ertile ; is occupied . a re by farmers There three townships , one called — Koldby , but no villages at present . Without doubt here is the birthplace o f the name . IS LE O F SAMs i . I t possible that the name o f this place may have o f been suggested by that of the city Colberg , on the r northe n shore of Prussia , some three hu ndred miles away , where the sailors visited , one from the other . VL J KEL O E GQI A I N UJ Y V T O S . One of the mightly men who came to England with the Norman Conqueror , and whose name is on the sacred m i r s C o l u b e e . list of Battle Abbey , was Gu illaume of This name is pr onou nced i n Normandy more like Colby c o l u mbi e re than it looks . The was one of those accursed t towers in which , before the Great Revolution , the yrant lords of Normandy she ltered the voracious pigeons which none but lords could own , and which preyed upon the harvests of the peasants till the peasant children died of a f mi a n e . No other Norman name seems akin to ours , and this one is very . remote . Another unlikely derivation of the name is from a “ c e — quaint old Norfolk word , old r , the debris of straw after threshing . This is evidently related to the German — f leoh l o . , the stump anything R Ke w le o f e v . John y , rector the parishes of Colby and Arbory in the I sle of Man , suggests the meaning of the ’ “ ” name to be Coll s Farm .